Hong Kong travelers to Japan increased 60 percent in March, new spending record set

More than three million foreigners visited Japan in March - a record for a single month, according to Japanese government data. Among them, Hong Kong tourists accounted for 231,000 people, a year-on-year increase of nearly 60 percent.

The data from the Japan National Tourism Organization also found that visitors from Hong Kong spent an impressive total of ¥154.3 billion (approximately HK$7.823 billion) in the first quarter of 2024, marking an 86.3 percent increase compared to the same period in 2019, positioning Hong Kong as the third highest spender globally in terms of daily spending per tourist.

The total of 3.08 million travelers to Japan in March represented an increase of 69.5 percent from March 2023 and an 11.6 percent gain compared to March 2019 before the pandemic battered global tourism, the Japan National Tourism Organization said.

The countries and regions with the highest number of visitors to Japan, in order, are South Korea, Mainland China, Taiwan, the United States, and Hong Kong.

The organization said the increase in Hong Kong tourists to Japan can be attributed to factors such as the long Easter holiday, an increase in the number of direct flights to Japan, and cruise ships docking at Naha Port in Okinawa.

In the first quarter of this year, a total of 623,600 Hong Kong travelers visited Japan, an increase of 23.5 percent compared to the same period in 2019.

Breaking down the expenditures from Hong Kong travelers, each of them spent approximately HK$12,545 over an average stay of 6.1 days, equating to a daily spend of about HK$2,057.

This puts Hong Kong in third place globally in terms of daily spending per tourist, trailing only behind mainland China and the United States, and surpassing both Taiwan and South Korea.